Does truth matter in this general election?

The PM told the debate that he thought it did – but the evidence may suggest otherwise, writes John Rentoul

Johnson is far from the first prime minister to make wide-of-the-mark claims (ITV/Getty)

One of the telling moments in the TV debate came when Julie Etchingham, the presenter, asked a question: “Does the truth matter in this election?” The prime minister said: “I think it does.” And the studio audience laughed.

It is a theme of politics today that Boris Johnson has an unusually loose relationship with the truth – he is often compared to Donald Trump as an exemplar of something quite different from what used to be expected of leaders.

The Conservatives didn’t help themselves when, at about the same time that the studio audience was mocking their leader, their press office rebranded its Twitter account as factcheckUK – a bogus service dedicated to holding Jeremy Corbyn to account for any untrue claims made during the debate.